USA

A strip of land, flat, agricultural, where the dust is mixed with the mud of the mussy’s rivers. Where life unfolds in tiny villages and the cities do not exist. Where if you say that this is America do not believe you. A land where singing was the only way to communicate with a population brought there by force. And with the strength, but also with such cruelty, she was forced to work and live in misery and humiliation. A land that has suffered and he did suffer, but that, too, helped create the modern music: the Blues and its most famous products. This land took the name of its most important river and entered into our homes, in our imagination and our dreams through the stories of William Faulkner, Erskine Caldwell, John Steinbeck, the photographs of Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, William Ferris , Dick Waterman, images of Bertrard Tavernier, Alan Parker, the Cohen brothers until the last masterpiece of Quentin Tarantino. This land, where a cross can become legend, where the sacred in the profane blends, where the sound of the train is the rhythm and music, has a charm that – when you see it – you can not love that restarne. This land is called the Mississippi Delta and is there in the “Deep South” of the United States, with magnolias and cotton that looks like snow in summer. From its plantations and the terrible prisons, misfortunes and joys that music was born, thanks to the work of Alan Lomax and his followers, came to this day. From that land he took the “City of New Orleans“, in the most fortunate cases, or one of many Freight Trains to get to Chicago and elettrificarsi, or stopped in Memphis and in his Sun Studios to become Rock ‘n’ Roll or even, mingling with the sounds coming from the Appalachians, it turned into the Country Music. This is the magic of the Blues and Mississippi, a land and a culture which must be lived to 360 °, because it is just so that you can better appreciate the many facets. From Memphis, with his Beale Street, in Jackson, the state capital, passing through Clarksdale with the famous Crossroads...

Speaking of cinema is assumed that the emergence of the United States, and for obvious reasons. Obvious, but does not stipulate that the quality of the products is equal to capital expenditure and receipts at the box office. But it’s not all gold that glitters is equally true that since 1894 (the date of the first screenings of Thomas Edison) to date we have been able to benefit from the highest quality products come from overseas. And it is for exactly a century after the creation of cinetofono, and then the film with a lot of sound, taking their first steps as a protagonist Ethan and Joel Coen, two young brothers who will give life to a series of masterpieces of American filmography, telling the America with an eye for character and detail. A movie theater, their, sophisticated and irreverent, grotesque, innovative, surprising and sometimes ambiguous, which moves in all genres, leaving a strong impression, a trademark, brilliant and full of a very strong styling. Although they have always enjoyed considerable critical consideration at the two brothers, natives of St. Louis Park, a suburb of Minneapolis, reject any type of diva-like attitude, in life and in relationships with people. Traits that often emerge in the characters created specifically for their films and masterfully played by many actors, some of which are often present in several of their films, such as John Goodman, phenomenal character actor, John Turturro and Frances McDorman, among other things, became the wife of Joel Coen. And America with its contradictions that emerge stronger in the films of the Coen brothers to start from Raising Arizona, delirious history typically American with a huge Nicolas Cage. After a few years comes the final seal with the Oscar for Fargo, the 1996 masterpiece steeped in macabre kind of humor that is their trademark. And one of the golden moments for the two brothers in fact, the next movie (1998) is that The Big Lebowski, still among the most popular. Two years later, the crew will come down to Mississippi for a successful and brilliant parody of Homer’s Odyssey titled O Brother Where Art Thou? A story of pomade, bluegrass, blues, crossroads, bank robbers and idiotic members of the...

A trip with Travel For Fans, the project created by the Rootsway Association of Parma and the Il Blues Magazine, in collaboration with Tour Operator Altrimenti Viaggi, it can give many pleasant surprises, such as revive old legends related to the land where the blues was born, in the heart of Mississippi Delta. Every culture has deep roots, traditionally, special emblems that can wrap around themselves curious stories and mythologies. Many of these emblems are strongly linked with the various religions, throughout history, have been mixed together. As happened in the Southern States of the USA where, due to the importation of human material, to be used as slaves on the plantations, Africa and the Caribbean colonies their original religions, Voodoo in head, were outlawed by landowners fearful of practices and religious cults exercised. Obviously this does not mean that the traditions and beliefs of the origins were abandoned and forgotten, there was – in fact – that black people adopt some religious figures and did their Christian rituals and sacred books without, however, betray and forget their origins. And it is on these origins that was born black American religion that we find represented in the blues, and gospel while in spitituals prevails in the expression of the Christian religion, particularly Baptist and evangelical. Of course, every religion has a figure to contrast the good, to truth, to God or an evil entity, destructive and deceptive and that may be spiritual or supernatural. If you want to be precise, in contrast to the Christian religion, in the Haitian, where does the voodoo god Legba – wrongly compared to the devil – may be compared to the African god Eshu – Elegba that he had not at all negative powers but, on the contrary, played a role as intermediary between the gods and man, as well as the patron god of travelers and roads, and it was customary to leave offerings at crossroads in his honor. Here, then, comes into play a fundamental symbol for the African-American population: the crossing. Better known by the term crossroads is not only the meeting point of two streets, but is the choice to change life drastically. In the history of the blues,...

Always a very special charm surrounds and covers stories of some American roads have become even more symbols than gray ribbons of asphalt traveled by any kind of vehicles. Route 66 is perhaps the most famous, with it’s 2400 miles through eight states and three time zones that unites Chicago Illinois with Santa Monica, California, through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico and Arizona. A road sung, narrated and filmed, became a symbol of a lifestyle “coast to coast” so dear to the Americans, and not only. In a nutshell: a American myth. The road is the need for Americans to move, make knowledge and experience, sometimes even subversive, in that immensity of U.S. territory by drawing specific lifestyles. Just think at the beat generation that “On The Road” by Jack Kerouac drew strength to give birth to the youth movement of the sixties. Road means culture, architecture, art, music, nature, but, above all, unity. Suffice reading “Blue Highways” by William Least Heat Moon to understand what lies behind a common road if you’re in America. A journey that takes you from one metropolis to another through small villages, motels, convenience stores, gas stations with the inevitable distributor of Coca-Cola and the fantastic multi-colored signs touting everything. In the Deep South, where they are concentrated – among other things – most of the projects travel Travel For Fans of the roads are strongly linked to the blues and migration of black people to the North much more rich in job prospects and life. Memphis is the city where they arrive, meet and unfold, the main roads. The best known is Highway 61, which enters into the State of Mississippi through the alluvial lowlands of the Delta, and for almost 320 kilometers enters a region where time seems to stand still embraced by the course of the Yazoo and Mississippi rivers. In this land, the most fertile of all the Member States, nurtured for centuries by the periodic flooding of the two rivers and inexhaustible work of Black people – first slave and then laborers – in the huts of the peasants along the cotton fields, soybean and tobacco plantations and construction sites of consolidation of riverbanks, was born the...

The American food is commonly regarded as low-level , this does not apply to the States of the South, where the mixing of different ethnic groups has created a culinary culture of a certain thickness. Try to think what might have happened by mixing influences Native American, African, French, Spanish, Anglo-Scots-Irish and Italian. A term might be “Soul Food”, but also Creole, Cajun, Lowcountry and Floribbean, according to the State of origin. Generally the dishes can be considered poor and are based on local products manufactured according to the area. Who is fond of blues will have had the opportunity to hear, read or see how the food is important in popular culture, as well as the “Moonshine”, the liquor made from corn homemade, which is quite common in rural Mississippi. Although the musicians define it “the soul of the blues” and Mississippi John Hurt seems to have been one of the most skilled producers, is still a product illegal, so better avoid it. If corn whiskey is the soul of the blues barbeque (BBQ) is certainly the heart. This dish usually made of pork, spices and sauces, baked artisan, sometimes even extravagant, closed ovens peat-based or hyckory is considered a must since the time of Charley Patton, who is said, particularly fatty pieces predilection to avoid getting drunk. This type of cooking is part of the tradition and it can be found at various festivals or along the streets of the city, perhaps trusting their sense of smell to choose. For the lucky ones you can come across delicacies “downhome” like “Chitlins” on the basis of the so-called scraps of pork, but it is known that the pig does not throw anything away. If you are not meat lovers fear not, the fish is not lacking, rather it is the other food par excellence connected to the blues. Not surprisingly, the Catfish often appears in the lyrics of blues songs being used as a powerful symbol to conceal sexual images. And tradition in Mississippi for anyone to eat a delicious plate of fried catfish accompanied by “hushpuppies” (corn nuggets), fries or coleslaw. May happen to meet in the menus even the name “Buffalo” is not the meat of...

If you say Harley you think immediately to America, free and wild to enjoy the dream of a journey that has its roots firmly in each of us. Not everyone can boast of owning a two-wheeler borned in Milwaukee, but anyone can have a dream. Moreover the Harley-Davidson in this 110 years has come a long way, and not only in the figurative sense, and given away at many dreams. Founded in 1902, thanks to two people in their twenties – William Harley and Arthur Davidson – who built a prototype of a motorized bicycle in the garage where he lived Davidson, the company gradually grew to become the actual colossus, with branches in every part of the world and perfectly entry the imaginary part of many fans of motorized two-wheelers. Try to think of how many books, movies and songs it’s the protagonist, where he gave us the thrill and the feeling of freedom, coupled with America, it is still unchanged. America and perfect for use as a motorcycle Harley, especially if customized and personalized. Try to think of driving the chopper that was using Captain America in Easy Rider – a Hydra Glide completely modified by Ben Hardy – along the bridges that cross the Mississippi or along Highway 61 in the “Deep South” of the United States. Precisely for this Travel For Fans, the project created by the cultural association Rootsway of Parma and the musical culture magazine Il Blues, give fans the opportunity to visit the United States, and in particular the Lands of the Blues, also riding a roaring Harley-Davidson to retire upon arrival at American land. All this thanks to the collaboration with Altrimenti Viaggi Tour Operator who has concentrated its activities on what was the main passion: the work On the Road, by proposing and organizing trips to Harley-Davidson in Europe, USA and Canada, with a perfect knowledge the destination and the mix of professionalism and friendliness, offered to the market every biker type of trip. So if you’ve read and you love Jack Kerouac, if you are fascinated by films such as “Easy Rider” and “Mask” , if in your veins Southern or Blues music and if you like the Moonshine you should definitely try a trip Travel for...